Hotelworld's Value Slides Due to Terror Threat

By Steve Wynne-Jones
Hotelworld's Value Slides Due to Terror Threat

Irish travel website Hostelworld saw its share price drop by nearly 30 per cent after the company announced poor Q2 earnings, citing terrorism events as the reason.

Hostelworld's chief executive Fergal Mooney said: “trading over the second quarter has been at a level below our expectations”, as the recent terrorist attacks in France and Belgium have discouraged people from travelling to mainland Europe.

According to The Irish Times, its shares dropped 28.9 per cent to £1.83, lessening the group's value by £80 million after the announcement.

Despite the Euro 2016 soccer tournament starting in less than two weeks, there are still a number of vacancies all over France, the host country, which Mooney said the company has "just never seen before". The site's most popular destination, London, has also suffered a drop in bookings.

“Whilst during this period Asia Pacific continued to be our fastest growing destination region, driven by hostellers’ travel preferences and our increased supply in that geography, bookings into higher priced European destinations have been weaker,” said the company in a trading statement.

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